Electrically-driven drophead sewing machine



Sept. 4, 1%23.

' 1,467,234 C.E.COLEGROVE ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN DROPHEAD SEWING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 11. 1921 f 16 mwv ept 4, i923. L4713= c, E. COLEGROVE ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN DROPHEAD SEWING MACHINE Filed July 11, 1921 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 74 &

.d/wa 56% yfim wv 4 Sept. 4', 1923. 1,467,134

0. E. COLEGROVE ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN DROPHEAD SEWING MACHINE Filed July, 11. 1921 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 IltUfiTLf Patented Sept. 4, 1923.

UNITED STATES 1,467,134 PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES E. COLEGROVE, OF EAST CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGN-OR TO WHITE SEWING MACHINE COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO,

A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

ELECTRICALLY-DBIVEN DROPHEAD SEWING MACHINE.

Application filed July 11, 1921. Serial No. 483,698.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that" I, CHARLES E. 001412 GROVE, a citizen of the United States, residing at East Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Electrically-Driven Drophead Sewing Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to electrically driven drop head sewing machines.

More particularly, the invention relates to the control of the motor, i. e., to the mechanism for starting and stop ing it, and for controlling its speed, and t e chief objects of the invention are to avoid the necemity for long conductors between the motor and the rheostat through. which the' motor i controlled, and to provide a construction which permits the use of sub stantially :a fixed wiring between the rheostat and motor.

Further, the invention aims to provide a construction wherein, both the motor and rheostat are carried by the swingin platform to which the sewing machine ead is attached, and to provide in connection therewith rheostat operating means so constructed and arrangedwith reference to the rheostat that the sewing machine head can be lowered into the cabinet or elevated to operative osition very readily with reference to the r eostat controlling parts carried by the fixed part of the cabinet without causing any mechanical damage to the rheostat controlling par'ts and without requiring the manual connecting .or disconnecting of any of the parts to "effect this movement. Still further, the invention aims to mount the rheostat in such a manner on the swinging platform carrying the head, and to provide a rheostat operating device or mechanism which'is not only eflicient and satisfactory in a mechanical sense, but one of such a nature that when the head is lowered into the cabinet the rheostat arm is automaticall removed from the parts norm-ally contro ling it, and when the head is elevated the rheostat arm is automatically restored to operative position with respect to the controlling mechanism.

The invention may be briefly summarized as consisting in certain novel combinations and arrangements of parts and details of construction which will be described in the specification and set forth in the appended claims.

In the accompanying sheets of drawin Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view of t e operative position; F i 4 is a detailed sectional view through t e' platform showing the rear side of the rheostat; Fig. 5 is a detailed sectional view showing particularly the bell crank which is mounted on the rear inner side of the cabinet, this bell crank forming a part of the rheosta't operating mechanism and being designed to shift the rheostat arm, the section being taken substantially along the line -55 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction indicated b the arrows; Fig. 6 is a view similar toig. 2, but showing the head elevated to operative position; and Fig. 7 is a horizontal sectional view substantially along the line 7-7 of Fig. 6, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

inet being supported on legs 11. At the top of the cabinet is a swinging platform 12 which in this instance is hinged to swing about the horizontal axis 13 near the upper front part of the cabinet.

If desired, this platform may be connected, by a. wire cable or equivalent means to a hinged extension leaf 14 designed to be swung over the top of the cabinet when the platform is lowered into the same, as for example, in the manner illustrated in Patent No. 1,338,834, granted May 4, 1920, to Theo. Kundtz, for cable guide for drop head sewing machine cabinets, and Patent No. 1,379,828, granted May 31, 1921., to Theo. Kundtz, for drop head sewing machine cabinet. However, the details of the cabinet are not material to the present invention, and the platform 12 may be otherwise pivotally mounted and operated in any swinging switch or be driven by an electric motor which may be mounted on the head or platform in any desired manner, but in this instance the motor, which is indicated at 16, is mounted on a bracket 17 secured to the upright portion 18 of the arm of the head, the motor having a driving wheel 19 adapted to be held in frictional driving engagement with the hand wheel 20.

Before taking up the parts more directly involving my invention, it might be mentioned that the motors of modern electrically driven sewing machines of the drop head type are controlled by cutting resistanoe into and out of the motor circuit, the resistance being arranged in the form of a rheostat of some suitable type, involving a rheostat arm.

In all prior constructions of which I am aware the rheostat is mounted on a fixed part of the cabinet, in which event the motor the swinging head or platform carried by moves relative to the rheostat, thus requiring the use of long flexible conductors to permit this relative movement. To avoid the use of these flexible conductors which are objectionable and unsafe from an electrical. standpoint, I provide my invention, which in its broad aspect com rises the mounting of the rheostat in the p atform so as to swing with the motor.

In'the embodiment of the invention illustrated the rheostat is shown at 21, and as will be observed, the rheostat is mounted on the under side of the swinging platform 12 near what is in effect the lower edge of the platform when the platform is in its lower position, or the rear edge adjacent the rear wall of the cabinet when the platform is in elevated position.

Inasmuch as the motor and rheostat are in relatively fixed position the 'motor can be connected to the rheostat by relatively short and substantially firm conductors, indicated at 22. The lower ends of the conductors are connected-to a plug 23 adapted to fit into a socket suitably wired to the rheostat so that the rheostat and motor can be readily diseonnected should it be desired for any reason to remove the motor; from the machine. Alongside the socket which receives the plug 23 is a second socket 24 which is adapted to receive a plug connected to a suitable source of current, the location' of these two sockets being indicated in Fig. 3.

- Though the details of the rheostat are immaterial to the present invention, preferably it involves, as is usually the case, a swing ing arm 25 indicated in Fig. 4, and in this instance the arm is provided with an operating lip or projection 25 projecting from the rear side of the rheostat case, and therefore projectin close to the rear wall '10 of the cabinet w en the platform is elevated.

The rheostat may be controlled by the foot files-met alongside or across the rear wall 10* of the cabinet, in a diagonal direction, as most clearly shown in Fig. 1.

The upper outer end of this rod is connected to a bell crank 29 pivoted to a bracket 30 on the inner side of the rear wall near the corner of the cabinet diagonally opposite from the lower, lever 26. This bell craik' which is located at the rear of the rheostat when the swinging platform iselevated is provided. with a forwardly projecting lip 31 which is adapted to engage and shift the rearwardly projecting lip 25 of the rheostat arm. r

A spring 32 connected to the bell crank and to the bracket 30 as shown in Fig. 5 restores the bell crank and other parts of the mechanism to normal position when pressure is relieved from the front end of the lever 26, and the rheostat arm is automatically restored to off position by a spring, not shown, but forming a part of the rheostat, when the bell crank 29 is moved to normal or off position by the release of knee lever 26.

It is to be understood that there is no fixed connection between the bell crank 29 i and rheostat arm, but these two parts have projecting portions which overlap, one portion projecting rearwardly and the other projecting forwardly, and the bell crank and rheostat arm swinging about substantially coincident centers so that when the bell crank is swung to the right, as viewed in Figs. 1 and 5, it will engage and swing to the right the rheostat arm so as to start and gradually cut resistance out of the motor circuit to cause the motor to come up to maximum speed, and when theibell crank is swung in the reverse direction the rheostat arm swings in the same direction, cutting resistance into the motor circuit so as to reduce its speed and opening the motor circuit so as to-stop the motor when the arm reaches its normal off position.

When the head is elevated to the position shown in Fig. 1', the o erator by the pres sure of the knee on the orward end of lever 26 rocks the lever and this motion is transmitted by the rod 28 to the bell crank 29 so as to swing it about its pivot, and thus operate the rheostat as just explained, the lever 26 bein automatically returned to nor malposition y the spring 32 when thev pres sure on the lever is relieved. Thus the motor chine of the drop .tion, a sewing machine head can be started and stopped and operated at any speed within the limits providedby' the desi of the rheostat and motor.

en the operator desires to lower the head into the cabinet this can be very readily done, for the construction is such that the rheostat arm simply swings away from the bell crank 29, as is obvious from, an inspection of Fig. 1, and as the rheostat and motor are in fixed relation there is no flexing of the conductors 22 connecting the motor to the rheostat, and as the platform and head swing downward there, is no disarrangement of or in'ury to the rheostat operating mechanism. urthermore, as the rheostat swings downward with the platform 12 the rheostat arm is automatically returned to oif position, and the control of the rheostat is automatically interrupted so that should the operator lower-or start to lower the head while the driving motor is in operation the motor is automatically sto ped.

Likewise, when the plati orr'n is swung u to operative position at the top of the cabinet, the rearwardly projecting portion of the rheostat arm is automatically restored into the path of the forwardly rojecting part of the bell crank 29, so t at the control of the motor through the knee lever 26 is immediately restored.

Obviously, man of the details of the parts may be m "fled, and Itherefore do not desire to be confined to the precise arrangements or constructions shown, but aim in my claims to cover all modifications which do not involve a departure from the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having described my invention I claim 1. In an electrically driven sewing mahead type, a cabinet comprising a relatively fixed part and a movable part carrying the head of the sewing machine, a motor for operating the machine, a rheostat for controlling the motor both the motor and rheostat bein movable with the head whenswung to an from operative position, and rheostat con trolling means seperate from and unattached to said rheostat and carried by the fixed part, said rheostat controlling means having a member engageable with a part of the rheostat only when the head is in the operative osition.

2. u an electrically driven sewing machine of the drop head type, a cabinet having a fixed portion and a movable pormounted portion and adapted down into the cabinet on the, movable to be swun or upward.

into operative position, a motor for driving themachine and 'a rheo-- the motor both movable with the head an with said movable part of the cabinet, and means on the relatively fixed part of the cabinet adjacent the rheostat when the head is in operative position for operating the rheostat, said rheostat having a part with which said operating means is adapted to engage when the head is in operative positio p 3. In an electrically driven sewing machine of the drop head type, a cabinet having at the top a swinging platform, a sewing machine head mounted on the platform, a driving motor above the platform a rheostat in fixed relation with respect to the motor and mounted on the under side of the platform, and a rheostat controlling means having a member mounted on a fixed part beneath and adjacent the platform of stat for controlling the cabinet and positioned alongside the o erative horizontal position within the cabinet, a head carried by the platform, a motor for operating the machine, a rheostat for controlling the motor mounted upon the underside of the platform, a rheostat controlling means carried by the fixed part-pfthe cabinet and including an operating part toward and from which the rheostat is moved when the platform is elevated to operative posi-' tion and lowered respectively, said rheostat having a part with which said operating means is adapted to engage when the head is inoperative position.

5. In an electrically driven sewing machine of the drop head type, a cabinet havinga fixedportion and a movable platform, a head mounted on the platform, a motor above the platform for operatingthe machine, a rheostat for motor mounted on the lower side of the platform so as to swing therewith, a rheostat controllin means mounted on the fixed part of the cabinet and comprising a portion ad- 'acent the rheostat when the platform and ead are in their upper position, the rheostat being moved toward and from said portion of the rheostat operating means when the platform and head are elevated and lowered respectively.

In testimony, I hereunto afi'ix my signature-,

ed to be swung from position to a head type, a cabinet having at the top ereof a platform adaptinc controlling the 

